There are currently two types of fulltext searching: an SQL-based word index and a file scanner. They each have their advantages and drawbacks.
The word index is very fast to search and is currently used for the find-as-you-type quicksearch. However, indexing files takes some time, so we should probably offer a preference to turn it off ("Index attachment content for quicksearch" or something). There's also an issue with Chinese characters (which are indexed by character rather than word, since there are no spaces to go by, so a search for a word with common characters could produce erroneous results). The quicksearch doesn't use a left-bound index (since that would probably upset German speakers searching for "musik" in "nachtmusik," though I don't know for sure how they think of words) but still seems pretty fast.
* Note: There will be a potentially long delay when you start Firefox with this revision as it builds a fulltext word index of your existing items. We obviously need a notification/option for this. *
The file scanner, used in the Attachment Content condition of the search dialog, offers phrase searching as well as regex support (both case-sensitive and not, and defaulting to multiline). It doesn't require an index, though it should probably be optimized to use the word index, if available, for narrowing the results when not in regex mode. (It does only scan files that pass all the other search conditions, which speeds it up considerably for multi-condition searches, and skips non-text files unless instructed otherwise, but it's still relatively slow.)
Both convert HTML to text before searching (with the exception of the binary file scanning mode).
There are some issues with which files get indexed and which don't that we can't do much about and that will probably confuse users immensely. Dan C. suggested some sort of indicator (say, a green dot) to show which files are indexed.
Also added (very ugly) charset detection (anybody want to figure out getCharsetFromString(str)?), a setTimeout() replacement in the XPCOM service, an arrayToHash() method, and a new header to timedtextarea.xml, since it's really not copyright CHNM (it's really just a few lines off from the toolkit timed-textbox binding--I tried to change it to extend timed-textbox and just ignore Return keypress events so that we didn't need to duplicate the Mozilla code, but timed-textbox's reliance on html:input instead of html:textarea made things rather difficult).
To do:
- Pref/buttons to disable/clear/rebuild fulltext index
- Hidden prefs to set maximum file size to index/scan
- Don't index words of fewer than 3 non-Asian characters
- MRU cache for saved searches
- Use word index if available to narrow search scope of fulltext scanner
- Cache attachment info methods
- Show content excerpt in search results (at least in advanced search window, when it exists)
- Notification window (a la scraping) to show when indexing
- Indicator of indexed status
- Context menu option to index
- Indicator that a file scanning search is in progress, if possible
- Find other ways to make it index the NYT front page in under 10 seconds
- Probably fix lots of bugs, which you will likely start telling me about...now.
Here's a shot at a single/double creator field toggle switch -- let me know what you think
A few issues:
- There's currently no comma between the last name and first name when in two-field mode -- I removed it to greatly simplify the code, hoping to be able to use the CSS :after pseudo-element, but that seems to not work with XUL -- I'll figure out a clean solution and add it back ( refs #288 )
- It's not very smart about switching between single-field mode and two-field mode, as it currently just keeps the last word (even if it's "Jr." or "III") as the last name and puts the rest in the first name field -- not a big deal, but it should at least be a bit smarter about this ( refs #289 )
- There are probably some other bugs
- improved bibliography (especially Chicago Manual of Style)
- improved error handling for import/export/bibliography
- bibliographic export now ignores notes and standalone attachment (before, they made export silently fail). an error appears if you try to generate a bibliography from only notes or standalone attachments.
- About panel now gets version number automatically
- Change version from 1.0a1 to 1.0b1
* Important: If you're on an SVN install, you need to rename the scholar@chnm.gmu.edu text file in your profile extension directory to zotero@chnm.gmu.edu *
XPI installs will (I think) update automatically, since I kept an entry in updates.rdf with the old GUID
Proper labels for saved searches, hiding rather than disabling irrelevant menu options, added "New Saved Search..." to menu, made file and bibliography export work with saved searches, added "Export Library..." option to Library drop-down
addresses #214, add footnote support to word integration
- the third icon on the Zotero Word toolbar is now reserved for "Document Options," which, for now, means on the selection of styles
- the Document Options window will, for now, appear the first time you create a citation. the default style probably belongs in the Scholar preferences window.
- you can now generate citations in both footnote and in-text citation formats. you can't yet switch between them on the fly, but that should be coming soon...
- Ibid is not yet implemented. again, coming soon.
Implemented isBefore and isAfter operators and added to date conditions -- currently have to type dates in SQL format, but we'll have a chooser or something by Beta 2 (this should probably be a known issue)
Added isLessThan and isGreaterThan to 'pages', 'section', 'accessionNumber', 'seriesNumber', and 'issue' fields, though somebody should probably check me on that list
Removed JS strict warning on empty search results
"Notes" column changed to "#" and combined with the attachment count. "#" isn't exactly immediately self-explanatory, but "Notes/attachments" would be way too long, and once you realize what it's for (i.e. the first time you create a child item), you really don't want the column taking up any more room than that... If people have a better suggestion, do share.
Conditions can now offer drop-down menus rather than freeform text fields -- implemented for collections/saved searches and item types
Special handling to combine collections and saved searches into a single "Collection" menu (can we get away with calling them "Smart Collections"?) -- internally, values are stored as C1234 or S5678 in the interface and converted to/from regular collectionID and savedSearchID conditions for search.js
Use localized strings for conditions (tries searchConditions.* first, then itemFields.*)
Alphabetize condition list
Operator menu now fixed length for all conditions
(Also fixes bug from r379 where changing creator type on a blank unsaved creator would actually insert "(first)" and "(last)")
Localized '(first)' and '(last)'
Refs #179, adding a new creator then clicking an existing creator makes the creator field disappear
Closes#111, minor modifications to field list schema
Changes per above tickets and comments at http://chnm.grouphub.com/projects/310105/msg/cat/2333974/2995041/comments
- date, year and lastModified merged into date
- added date field to journalArticle
- added series, seriesTitle and seriesText to journalArticle
- added seriesNumber (along with series) to book and bookSection
If you have attachments to the old terminology, feel free to file a complaint.
Changed interface code too, since David is gone (or at the very least has more important things to do with his remaining time)
Addresses #169, add OpenURL interface hooks
Addresses #170, Put "Link" option before "Import" in drop-down menu
Fixes some advanced search flaws (there are still bugs)
Implemented advanced/saved search architecture -- to use, you create a new search with var search = new Scholar.Search(), add conditions to it with addCondition(condition, operator, value), and run it with search(). The standard conditions with their respective operators can be retrieved with Scholar.SearchConditions.getStandardConditions(). Others are for special search flags and can be specified as follows (condition, operator, value):
'context', null, collectionIDToSearchWithin
'recursive', 'true'|'false' (as strings!--defaults to false if not specified, though, so should probably just be removed if not wanted), null
'joinMode', 'any'|'all', null
For standard conditions, currently only 'title' and the itemData fields are supported -- more coming soon.
Localized strings created for the standard search operators
API:
search.setName(name) -- must be called before save() on new searches
search.load(savedSearchID)
search.save() -- saves search to DB and returns a savedSearchID
search.addCondition(condition, operator, value)
search.updateCondition(searchConditionID, condition, operator, value)
search.removeCondition(searchConditionID)
search.getSearchCondition(searchConditionID) -- returns a specific search condition used in the search
search.getSearchConditions() -- returns search conditions used in the search
search.search() -- runs search and returns an array of item ids for results
search.getSQL() -- will be used by Dan for search-within-search
Scholar.Searches.getAll() -- returns an array of saved searches with 'id' and 'name', in alphabetical order
Scholar.Searches.erase(savedSearchID) -- deletes a given saved search from the DB
Scholar.SearchConditions.get(condition) -- get condition data (operators, etc.)
Scholar.SearchConditions.getStandardConditions() -- retrieve conditions for use in drop-down menu (as opposed to special search flags)
Scholar.SearchConditions.hasOperator() -- used by Dan for error-checking
- eliminates "unresponsive script" message on import/export
i tried to make a progress bar that actually provides useful information, but for some reason, XUL interface updates are done asynchronously, and thus don't actually happen as long as the import/export operation continues. the code is there, but disabled, if there's some solution to this issue, but i searched and couldn't find one.
The Scholar database is backed up on browser close. On startup, if the main database is damaged, the extension saves a copy of the damaged file and tries to restore from the last automatic backup. If it fails, it creates a new database file.
New methods:
Scholar.getScholarDatabase(string [ext])
Scholar.backupDatabase()
Scholar.moveToUnique(file, newFile) -- find a unique filename using the leafName of newFile as the suggested name (using the built-in Mozilla functionality) and move the file there
Scholar.Date.getFileDateString(file)
Scholar.Date.getFileTimeString(file)
Closes#118, add "translator" creator type
Closes#122, add DOI and abbreviated journal title fields
Addresses #45, reorder item fields -- source/rights moved down to bottom; date fields not yet moved
closes#4, Make printable version
- moves functions for creating and deleting hidden browser objects to scholar.js (from ingester.js), since these are necessary for printing as well
- allows saving bibliography in HTML or printing bibliography. style support is not yet complete (pending finalization of 0.9 version of CSL specification).
Closes#128, Display files as children of item in items list
Fixes#132, On Full-screen mode, browser content disappears but Scholar content does not stretch.
Fixes#133, When Scholar on top, pane automatically resizes depending on item info height.
Not finished, but enough to give David something to work with
No BLOBs -- just linking/importing of files and loaded documents
New Scholar.Item methods:
incrementFileCount() (used internally)
decrementFileCount() (used internally)
isFile()
numFiles()
getFile() -- returns nsILocalFile or false if associated file doesn't exist (note: always returns false for items with LINK_MODE_LINKED_URL, since they have no files -- use getFileURL() instead)
getFileURL() -- returns URL string
getFileLinkMode() -- compare to Scholar.Files.LINK_MODE_* constants: LINKED_FILE, IMPORTED_FILE, LINKED_URL, IMPORTED_URL
getFileMimeType() -- mime type of file (e.g. text/plain)
getFileCharset() -- charsetID of file
getFiles() -- array of file itemIDs this file is a source for
New Scholar.Files methods:
importFromFile(nsIFile file [, int sourceItemID])
linkFromFile(nsIFile file [, int sourceItemID])
importFromDocument(nsIDOMDocument document [, int sourceItemID])
linkFromDocument(nsIDOMDocument document [, int sourceItemID])
New class Scholar.FileTypes -- partially implemented, not yet used
New class Scholar.CharacterSets -- same as other *Types classes:
getID(idOrName)
getName(idOrName)
getTypes() (aliased to getAll(), which I'll probably change the others to as well)
Charsets table with all official character sets (copied from Mozilla source)
Renamed Item.setNoteSource() to setSource() and Item.getNoteSource() to getSource() and adjusted to handle both notes and files
